Protesting a School of Terror - SOAW 2007
Last weekend, November 16 –18, between 11,000 and 25,000 activists gathered at the gates of Fort Benning Military Base, in Columbus, Georgia, to call for a close of the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly called the School of the Americas (SOA). This was the 18th consecutive annual demonstration on this weekend before Thanksgiving, a time chosen for its proximity to the massacres of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in San Salvador, at the hands of soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army. Many of the assassins were trained at the SOA.
The SOA was dubbed the School of Assassins by the people of Latin America in the latter half of the 20th Century, when the school was located in Panama, since it was clearly associated with so many coups and assassinations in their countries. It moved to the US in 1984, where it continued its work training soldiers in the arts of dirty war, counter-insurgency, and control of civilian populations struggling for social justice. Today, in Fort Benning it is buried in one of the largest military installations in the world, named after a Confederate General who fought for the right to own slaves.
Keeping us under surveillance from a cherry picker platform
In 1996, the Pentagon disclosed that the SOA was using manuals that advocated and instructed assassination, torture and disinformation techniques. These techniques were to be directed against those in civil society who were advocating social and economic changes. School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), founded by Fr. Roy Bourgeois, has also uncovered the names of scores of soldiers trained at the SOA who have committed gross human rights violations in their countries, which include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Hondura, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uraguay.
This year marked the first year after the death of Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador in 1981, also committed by the Atlacatl Battalion. The story of this massacre is a clinic of United States Cold War policies that sacrificed humanity and accountability for the delusory struggly against communism, and is well documented in Mark Danner’s book, “The Massacre at El Mozote”. Her witness and testimony were a moving human document of the struggle of the people for justice and accountability. She spoke at the demonstration in years past and conducted a recent tour of the US, and I remember meeting her briefly, sad and open to the pain of her experience, without bitterness: inexpressable…
Roy Bourgeois addresses the crowd in front of poster of Rufina
Local people who made the trek to Georgia this year included John Zachman of Easton, Joe DeRaymond and Sarah Snider of Freemansburg, Tim Chadwick and Bob Riggs of Bethlehem, Nancy Tate and Tom Stinnett of Riegelsville. Art Landis of Perkasie was one of 11 people who crossed the line into the base and was arrested for this act. His witness may cost him up to 6 months in prison and a $5000 fine. He was released on Sunday, 11/18, after posting a $500 bond aand now must appear in Columbus on January 28 for trial. About his action and his upcoming trial and sentence, he says, “I fell good about it. I have some fear, but I am very glad that I did it.” He went on, about his motivation for risking imprisonment, “The SOA is a terrorist camp and terrorism and torture and killing are things I don’t approve of, whether we do it or our friends do it or it’s done in other parts of the world.” Those of us who have worked with Art over the years are impressed with his ability to act on his beliefs in a direct and dignified fashion. He was a co-defendant of mine in the Dent office presence and took the time to visit his Congressman’s office about the SOA/WHINSEC this Fall. He is a Patrick Murphy constituent who is disappointed that Murphy;s anti-Iraq War stance is not matched by a desire that the US not be a sponsor of torture and terrorism in its military training programs.
2007 Line crossers after they had crawled under the fence, Art is at the right, standing.
Photo from SOAW webste - check it out for more photos, slideshows and coverage - www.soaw.org
The weekend at the gates of Fort Benning has expanded over the years into a Latin America activist convention. SOAW reserves a good portion of the Columbus Convention Center for meetings and presentations on all facets of the current situation in the Americas. There are over a 100 tables at the gates, selling t-shirts, books, magazines, jewelry, asking for signatures, providing information, and making a presence for dozens of organizations and movements.
The funeral procession on Sunday, when we march solemnly by the thousand, making a memory for the tens and hundreds of thousands of those who have fallen at the hands of terror in the Americas, was led by Father Roy, Dennis Kucinich, torture survivor Hector Aristizibal, as the names are sung by Colleen Kattau and others from the stage.
Hector Aristizabal at the gates during the funeral procession - he is on stilts, which allow him to be at the top of the twelve foot high fence
After the thousands march around the stage, past the gates hung with flowers and crosses, the puppetistas make their procession, with a burst of life and energy, dedicated this year to Rufina.
It has been another year, and the school of terror continues, despite a Democratic Congress. It is a marker of our culture, that so much can be brought to light, and still be tolerated. We will return, November 21-23, 2008, to organize, mourn and celebrate.
-Joe DeRaymond |
